I know few friends here at SSG who interviewed with few startups in Seattle and of course with Amazon. Finding it hard to make the cut. Advice/pointers are welcome . Please stop negativity
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@fgf. True, sort of.
I wouldn't be concerned about raw smartness because for the most, part the number of people who can get by by just being "smart" in the world are limited.
The majority of the people who are successful in software (tech) are either disciplined and/or passionate about what they do.
I was a EE grad that specialized in communication systems/information theory and realized when I graduated from college and was looking for a job, how I hated the theoretical work that I would be doing. So I ended up teaching myself software over the course of 1-2 years and found a start-up in the bay area that hired me with little or no experience in software. I learned from a lot of peers and the internet, back when it was about newsgroups (the www did not exist quite yet).. and every new job was increasing responsibility. Software is one of the things that if you really are passionate about , you can really self teach yourself everything you need to learn. Especially in this current world, information is so easily found just by googling it, unlike 20 years ago, when we had to use Usenet, newsgroups, etc. You guys working now don't realize how much easier you have it...
The only real barrier to why you can't succeed is your lack of determination and lack of passion for this business. If you are only doing this "as a job" and really aren't disciplined enough for this line of work, you won't be very successful..That's probably true, for everything else too.
If all you care about is your paycheck, well you probably should spend your time thinking about another profession, since there are many other things you could do to make a heck of a lot more money...But those require some motivation too some timing, and some luck..., and if you lack motivation.. you won't be successful either...Again. the common theme is how determined you are to succeed? Heck during the great recession, a few is us software engineers were using our brains and acculmulated income to flip REO houses throughout southern California at $50k a pop. I miss those days. Long gone.....
@L1wj7Sf-hnp takes a motivated, pure, and intelligent engineer to keep skills sharp and demonstrate skills other companies want. Hard to do at intel but possible, but
I feel for those that intel beats it out of them
Sadly some parts of intel you join a stupid mechanized army and they beat innovative and critical thinking out of you.
Intel today want it's PhDs to become private drones in a Army, especially TMG
And actually speaking of MCD.... A lot of fastfood corporate offices, surprisingly have been contacting a lot of my software colleagues about jobs... I know, I know. Jokes aside, but the reason why they want to hire software people...They want to automate a lot of their PO system to be more self-service so stores don't need to hire so many workers... I guess raising minimum wages, retailers now want to figure out how machines and software and be used to cut human labor (and cost).
The pay packages have been really good....Walmart's ecommerce division I'm hearing packages north of $200k, not necessarily in the bay area.
Actually, the if you can secure a interview at Google, and you really are stuck as a software engineer at Intel and what you are working on isn't "current" in the industry, then you can actually get an offer from Intel, if you study your butt off.....
One of my friends was a mobile apps guy....A really good/capable guy. He decided that he wanted to learn backend/cloud software systems. Google hired him simply because he could answer all the interview questions... His prior work experience had very little to do with his hiring. Google's one of the few companies you could pull this off, having no relevant experience, but simply having strong fundamentals.
Hit the books OP.
You'll need to study and practice for a few months.
There are plenty of books and online resources.
If you do get the job, you may be like the dog that caught the car. Your peers will be ultra smart and you will be competing with them for raises and promos. Be honest with yourself and think if you really want to enter the shark tank with people that have been writing sorting algorithms since they were five.
For those playing at home.
TMG != hardware
By hardware, I mean digital systems engineering.
Use whatever fab or foundry is most cost effective.
Hardware is not relevant?
What kind of moron thinks that?
Google is building their own ASICs.
Microsoft is doing FPGAs.
Tesla is hiring hardware people for their cars.
The slowing of Moore's law makes hardware engineers MORE important, not less. Scaling data centers going forward will require more and more customized hardware.
You must work at Intel SSG.
The hardware is dated and no longer relevant.
Well, to be fair, Google is hiring hardware people too... :)
Brutal @crp
@qdh is the real deal. Notice how he doesn't work at Intel.
Elite hardware people work at Intel (or at least they used to). Software engineers at Intel are a joke.
And here's the same stupid interview question I get asked all the time. I've seen it so many times, over so many years, I remember how to do it...
Given a sequence of N numbers (that can be positive, negative, or zero)... Write something that can find the longest sequence, such that the sum of that sequence produces the largest number....
If you figure that out... What's the efficiency of your algorithm? It should be O(n)...
Now that I'm passing this stupid question, hopefully companies won't keep asking this stupid question, because over the years, I'm tired of answering it!
Yup. You have Zero chance. An invite will most likely be a mistake or a filler. Stick to fast food BB.
In short was reading the first sentence.... If the person really has no clue how to prepare for these style of interviews, I provided excruciating details that follows. Plus if you have sleeping problems, it might help you get to sleep faster... :)
Happy holidays..
@qdh here again ...
BTW: I'm not an Intel guy. I was just lurking around layoff.com and saw this.
I found it funny that you start off with "in short"... yet your post is ANYTHING but short. Looks like 2 pages worth of small font. lol
In short, you need to study for these software interviews (Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc), and it will take an average IQ person about 1-2 months to prepare....
There are very few people who are naturally "gifted" that could pass through this interview without studying..And frankly, fresh college grads that all the theoretical academia knowledge have a pretty high advantage versus you who have been in industry... For example, you probably don't remember you N different sorting algorithms, while someone fresh from school does.
My advice is that if you really really want to a job from these companies, who have a elitist mentality of hiring, then well you need to spend time brushing up on your fundamentals AND also be prepared to solve a lot of "puzzle-style" questions. You might not be able to fake your IQ, but if you study for some of these interviews, it can make you seem smarter than you are. (no seriously...most people don't have the IQ to pass these interviews cold, without any preparation).. In fact, Google now gives interviewees a study guide and gives you a few weeks/months to prepare... (yeah, I know it's a joke, more on this later...) I've helped many many of my friends and colleagues get an offer from these companies, and of all the ones that got offers, almost all of them wouldn't have gotten an offer if they didn't spend the month or so preparing and me giving them "test questions" to think about.... Google "how to prepare for a Google interview", and there's plenty of resources....
One company that a few folks I know put together is this : interviewcake.com...
If you really have no clue on how to prepare for these interviews, I'd just cough up the 100 bucks or so and pay interviewcake so that you can run through their exercises.... Since it's "job training/preparation", you can write off the $100 or so on your 1040 taxes if you itemize deductions anyway as a job related expense. Plus you would be helping a startup in the bay area!
And going through the hundred of so questions that help you prepare it will either
1) make you well prepared to get you an offer
or
2) you'll realize you really hate this elitist style of interview process and won't want anything to do with it, since you will realize there many many more companies that don't do this, that would value your experience more based on what you did, and your (presumed) reasonable competency as an experienced software engineer.
Now about the google style interview....Although I personally think these companies that do this "elitist" style interview are great companies, and while I've helped many people get into these companies, I myself have declined all interviews from these companies. Part of the reason is philosophical on my part, part of it is my on recognition that I never do well in these style of interviews under pressure no matter how much I prepare, and part of me doesn't enjoy being humiliated by some jackazz who decides he wants to test "how smart I am" versus "how smart he is" particularly since even if I was accepted, I would question how difficult it would be to work in this sort of environment if everyone thinks they are so smart and are the hottest shet in town. So I always decline these style of interviews...But, that's because fortunately for me, right now, my reasonable competancy and my passion to keep current in the latest software tech makes me very marketable for the dozen or so other companies that don't do this to their prospective employees. So, to be blunt, I'm copping out from interviewing these "elitist" style interviews at "elitist" style companies, simply because I don't think I would be very successful even if I do get in, and personally I'd rather be a big fish in a smaller pond than a little fish in a big pond...
When I hire people on my own team, I never do this to other people. I just care if the person has relevant experience, and I do basic spot checks to make sure they reasonably good software engineers by giving them very reasonable problems that they have to solve in real time by actually writing a functional software module, and these questions are always open ended. In fact, all my interviews with a computer connected to an internet, and "open book", use the internet/the textbooks on my shelf, anything you want at your disposal. Out of every 10 candidates that come through my office, maybe 1 or 2 of them actually ask "can I use that book, or search on Google" for this XYZ solution...And I've always said "well, I didn't say you couldn't...." Again in the real world, since who writes software in a corner, without the help of the internet, peers, textbooks, references....And if you are one of the people who do, I probably don't want you on the team because it means you're probably spending all your time trying to reinvent something like a Hashtable when there's 100's of implementations that you could just cut/copy/paste out there and just use, and spend the rest of your time actually solving useful problems..... My 2 cents.
You need to figure out which is the better fit for you... If you have current skills/experience that are in demand, you probably don't need to go through with the song and pony dance at from these elitist companies...If on the other hand, you don't think your experience can make you shine at most other companies, you have nothing to lose, and I'd spend the month or so preparing. Plus if you do get in, the compensation will be great... (It's not really as ridiculous as people say it is...It's great, but other companies have been able to throw comparable bones.. I've never complained about money/compensation whereever I go...Simply because I won't ever work for someone that under-compensates me, and they know that...Having current in demand skills/experience plus having multiple offers multiple companies gives me that leverage)
Anyway, good luck...
Google does not find poor skills amusing. Hence you have zero chance. You'll get raped during the skills assessment. Save your dignity.
You may get lucky. You might get an interview for entertainment purposes of Amazon. If you don't mind being the subject of hilarious jokes post interview.
True
If you, as a software engineer, made a conscious choice to work at Intel SSG, I'm going to say you're an idiot.
SSG is for people that can't cut it at real software companies.
You're better off at McDonald's. Only top talent need apply. Seriously. Forget it.
Inability to use Google to find the answer is probably why you didn't get the job.
It's actually pretty easy but you need to put a lot of work to study.
SSG engineering s---s - sorry.